How do I tell if my soil is compacted?
The screwdriver test, the spade test and the four surface signs — plus how to find the depth of the problem, which decides what you do about it.
beginner20 min4 min read
Garden
Seasonal, practical gardening for people with a normal garden and a normal amount of time. Timings are given for a temperate northern-hemisphere climate — adjust for yours.
687 guides
How do I test manure or compost for weedkiller before I use it?
The bean bioassay: three pots, three weeks, and a definite answer on a load of manure, straw or compost before it goes anywhere near your vegetable beds.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I test my soil pH and change it?
Taking a sample that means something, reading the result, and the realistic limits of what you can change in an open garden.
beginner40 min3 min readHow do I test old seed before sowing a whole bed?
A ten-seed kitchen-towel test that takes minutes, tells you the germination rate as a percentage, and saves you a bed of gaps and three weeks of waiting.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do automatic greenhouse vent openers work, and how do I set one?
What is inside a wax-cylinder opener, why the adjustment is not a temperature dial, where to mount it, and the three things that stop one working.
beginner30 min4 min readIs it bad to water plants in the middle of the day?
The scorching myth, the real reason midday watering is wasteful, and why the depth you water to matters far more than the hour.
beginner10 min4 min readShould I mow the lawn in winter, and when do I stop?
Why there is no last cut date, how to judge whether a winter lawn needs topping, and the two conditions that make mowing genuinely harmful.
beginner20 min4 min readWhat happens if my tree falls on a neighbour's property?
Why liability turns on what you knew and what you did, not simply on whose tree it was, and the record-keeping that decides which of those you can prove.
beginner30 min5 min readWhat is the difference between compost, manure and topsoil?
What each material physically is, what job it does, and the one that fills a raised bed versus the one that feeds a border.
beginner15 min4 min readWhen can I cut down daffodil leaves after flowering?
The six-week rule and what is actually happening in that time, why knotting and plaiting do the same damage as cutting, and how to live with the untidy phase.
beginner10 min4 min readWhen should I pot a plant on into a bigger pot?
The test that takes ten seconds, why one pot size at a time matters, and what happens to a small plant moved into a very large pot.
beginner20 min4 min readWhen should I use a high-potash feed, and on what?
Tomato feed is a high-potash liquid and it works on far more than tomatoes — which plants want it, at what point in their year, and the two situations where it does harm.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy are my beetroot small, woody or running to seed?
Beetroot problems nearly all trace to one of three things: multiple seedlings from one seed cluster, a check to growth, or a cold spell after sowing.
beginner12 min4 min readWhy are my hydrangea flowers pink instead of blue?
How soil chemistry controls hydrangea colour, which varieties can change and which cannot, and the realistic way to keep a blue hydrangea blue.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy are my runner beans tough and stringy?
Stringiness is a maturity problem with a variety component — the picking size that avoids it, the stringless varieties, and what to do with the ones you missed.
beginner10 min3 min readWhy has the base of my plant's stem gone black and soft?
Basal rot explained through the arrangement that causes it — planting depth, mulch against the stem, water pooling and a strimmer wound.
intermediate20 min5 min readWhy is my box hedge going brown?
Separating box blight, box tree caterpillar, winter bronzing and drought, since three of the four look similar and need entirely different responses.
intermediate30 min3 min readWhy is my kale covered in grey powdery aphids?
Mealy cabbage aphid gets into the growing point and inside sprout buttons where nothing can reach it — catching it early, cutting it out, and clearing the overwintering source.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy is my pear tree not fruiting?
Pears are not apples: they flower two to three weeks earlier, so frost catches them more often, and the popular varieties have pollination quirks that leave a lone tree barren.
intermediate30 min5 min readWhy is my plant's new growth twisted and distorted?
Distortion is caused at the growing point, days before you see it — separating aphids, capsid bug, mite, weedkiller, virus and cold from one another.
intermediate18 min4 min readWhy is my wisteria not flowering?
Working through the five causes — age, origin, pruning, nitrogen and frost — in the order that identifies most cases quickly.
beginner20 min3 min readHow do I deadhead flowers, and does it actually help?
Why removing spent flowers extends flowering, where to make the cut on different plants, and the ones you should deliberately leave alone.
beginner30 min3 min readHow do I force rhubarb for early stalks?
Excluding light from a dormant crown produces tender pink stalks weeks early — the timing, the covering, and the recovery rule that stops you killing the plant.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I garden in a tiny space or a courtyard?
Using height, choosing fewer larger containers, and the watering regime a small space demands.
beginner1 hr 30 min2 min read